This chapter explores the building stage of the relationships among Congress, the IMF, and the World Bank, along with their domestic constituencies in American politics. The exogenous change that ...
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This chapter explores the building stage of the relationships among Congress, the IMF, and the World Bank, along with their domestic constituencies in American politics. The exogenous change that facilitated this process was the gradual resumption of international lending after World War II when Citibank and Chase Manhattan extended their branch banking operations overseas. As the work programs of the IMF and World Bank evolved, they reached out to the corporate community and Wall Street, initially to enable securities legislation permitting the World Bank to raise capital domestically. The chapter argues that internationalists, together with banks and large corporations, forged a powerful bloc of support by promoting the Bretton Woods institutions as a rival development strategy to the communist one during the Cold War. The bloc subsequently assisted in passing legislation creating two new agencies under the umbrella of the World Bank Group, the International Development Association and the International Finance Corporation. An important mechanism of congressional advocacy in these years was the insertion of provisions in legislation creating them that influenced their early functioning.Less

Building Constituencies for the Bretton Woods Framework : Banks, Big Business, and the Cold War Coalition

Kathryn C. Lavelle

Published in print: 2011-10-14

This chapter explores the building stage of the relationships among Congress, the IMF, and the World Bank, along with their domestic constituencies in American politics. The exogenous change that facilitated this process was the gradual resumption of international lending after World War II when Citibank and Chase Manhattan extended their branch banking operations overseas. As the work programs of the IMF and World Bank evolved, they reached out to the corporate community and Wall Street, initially to enable securities legislation permitting the World Bank to raise capital domestically. The chapter argues that internationalists, together with banks and large corporations, forged a powerful bloc of support by promoting the Bretton Woods institutions as a rival development strategy to the communist one during the Cold War. The bloc subsequently assisted in passing legislation creating two new agencies under the umbrella of the World Bank Group, the International Development Association and the International Finance Corporation. An important mechanism of congressional advocacy in these years was the insertion of provisions in legislation creating them that influenced their early functioning.

Incentives for an aid agency’s staff to learn about sustainability of field activities is one of the most fundamental factors in that agency’s quest for sustainable development outcomes. It is ...
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Incentives for an aid agency’s staff to learn about sustainability of field activities is one of the most fundamental factors in that agency’s quest for sustainable development outcomes. It is essential for agencies to base their decisions about development cooperation programs on an ongoing learning and adjustment process. Drawing from the general discussion of collective-action problems in public organizations in earlier chapters, the IAD framework is employed to identify and analyze specific collective-action problems within the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and its relationships with counterparts and contractors, both at the Stockholm headquarters and in the field.Less

Applying the IAD Framework: The Incentives Inside a Development Agency

Clark C. Gibson

Published in print: 2005-09-08

Incentives for an aid agency’s staff to learn about sustainability of field activities is one of the most fundamental factors in that agency’s quest for sustainable development outcomes. It is essential for agencies to base their decisions about development cooperation programs on an ongoing learning and adjustment process. Drawing from the general discussion of collective-action problems in public organizations in earlier chapters, the IAD framework is employed to identify and analyze specific collective-action problems within the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and its relationships with counterparts and contractors, both at the Stockholm headquarters and in the field.

In this chapter, the IMF, World Bank, and Congress entered the revived stage of the relationship among them. The revival was triggered externally by the international dimensions of the 2008 financial ...
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In this chapter, the IMF, World Bank, and Congress entered the revived stage of the relationship among them. The revival was triggered externally by the international dimensions of the 2008 financial crisis. Internal change in the legislature came from the election of democratic President Barack Obama, ending the earlier period of divided government. The chapter argues that through congressional advocacy efforts, the IMF received an increase in its New Arrangements to Borrow, following an informal agreement to modify some conditionality and transparency practices. The World Bank achieved the authorization and appropriation for the fifteenth replenishment of the International Development Association, with provisions over the use of the labor indicator in the Doing Business report. The role of the IMF in the Eurozone bailouts associated with the Greek and Irish crises is not conclusive in 2011. However, the era of divided government that facilitated a certain degree of support for the Bretton Woods institutions ended with the close of the 111th Congress. The length and character of the revival faces the obstacle of the collapse of the traditional constituencies of support for the IMF and World Bank in the international banking communities in the long term.Less

Reviving a Role for the Bretton Woods Institutions : The Financial Crisis of 2008

Kathryn C. Lavelle

Published in print: 2011-10-14

In this chapter, the IMF, World Bank, and Congress entered the revived stage of the relationship among them. The revival was triggered externally by the international dimensions of the 2008 financial crisis. Internal change in the legislature came from the election of democratic President Barack Obama, ending the earlier period of divided government. The chapter argues that through congressional advocacy efforts, the IMF received an increase in its New Arrangements to Borrow, following an informal agreement to modify some conditionality and transparency practices. The World Bank achieved the authorization and appropriation for the fifteenth replenishment of the International Development Association, with provisions over the use of the labor indicator in the Doing Business report. The role of the IMF in the Eurozone bailouts associated with the Greek and Irish crises is not conclusive in 2011. However, the era of divided government that facilitated a certain degree of support for the Bretton Woods institutions ended with the close of the 111th Congress. The length and character of the revival faces the obstacle of the collapse of the traditional constituencies of support for the IMF and World Bank in the international banking communities in the long term.

Classical International Development Law (IDL) has not kept its promises despite continuing attempts to implement it. Major legal principles such as the right of peoples to self-determination, ...
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Classical International Development Law (IDL) has not kept its promises despite continuing attempts to implement it. Major legal principles such as the right of peoples to self-determination, sovereignty over natural resources, and the right to nationalize against just compensation have helped to found and consolidate the sovereignty of newly independent states and let them properly consider their development. However, the set of legal norms that were subsequently adopted, which are legally binding and have been provided with some effectiveness, have proved extremely disappointing in their application. The new IDL of the post-Cold War years, which currently applies concurrently with conventional law on the matter seems no more effective. To change the existing dire condition, three options are open: sticking to the neo-liberal pro-market paradigm — an economically efficient but socially unfair solution; jettisoning any model of development — a blind alley; and changing the rules of the global economic system, and creating a new and fair New International Economic Order. This third option aims at changing the rules of the global economic system, recasting the Bretton Woods financial institutions, changing the rules of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and revising the World Trade Organization in a more equitable direction so that it finally refocuses relations between the various North(s) and South(s).Less

How to Depart from the Existing Dire Condition of Development

Emmanuelle Jouannet

Published in print: 2012-03-08

Classical International Development Law (IDL) has not kept its promises despite continuing attempts to implement it. Major legal principles such as the right of peoples to self-determination, sovereignty over natural resources, and the right to nationalize against just compensation have helped to found and consolidate the sovereignty of newly independent states and let them properly consider their development. However, the set of legal norms that were subsequently adopted, which are legally binding and have been provided with some effectiveness, have proved extremely disappointing in their application. The new IDL of the post-Cold War years, which currently applies concurrently with conventional law on the matter seems no more effective. To change the existing dire condition, three options are open: sticking to the neo-liberal pro-market paradigm — an economically efficient but socially unfair solution; jettisoning any model of development — a blind alley; and changing the rules of the global economic system, and creating a new and fair New International Economic Order. This third option aims at changing the rules of the global economic system, recasting the Bretton Woods financial institutions, changing the rules of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and revising the World Trade Organization in a more equitable direction so that it finally refocuses relations between the various North(s) and South(s).

This chapter studies the state fragility index of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). This index serves as an example of the uses, creation, and supposed measurement through ...
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This chapter studies the state fragility index of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). This index serves as an example of the uses, creation, and supposed measurement through indicators of the concepts of fragile, failing, or failed states. It describes this term as a ‘trading language’, which is used to refer to complicated social realities that are very heterogenous and have very little empirical and theoretical agreement.Less

Governmentalizing Sovereignty: Indexes of State Fragility and the Calculability of Political Order *

Nehal Bhuta

Published in print: 2012-07-05

This chapter studies the state fragility index of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). This index serves as an example of the uses, creation, and supposed measurement through indicators of the concepts of fragile, failing, or failed states. It describes this term as a ‘trading language’, which is used to refer to complicated social realities that are very heterogenous and have very little empirical and theoretical agreement.

This chapter surveys the 20-year history of development partnerships between the United States and Mongolia, focusing especially on the work of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and ...
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This chapter surveys the 20-year history of development partnerships between the United States and Mongolia, focusing especially on the work of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). It describes the evolution of the USAID program from one focused on immediate humanitarian relief to more sustainable long-term development. It also assesses some of the more notable USAID activities, including the Gobi Initiative, the GER Initiative, the establishment of Xac Bank and the revitalization of Xaan Bank. These early activities helped pave the way for a $285 million MCC program launched in 2008, one in which Mongolian partners played a key role.Less

Partnering on Development

Jonathan S. Addleton

Published in print: 2013-05-01

This chapter surveys the 20-year history of development partnerships between the United States and Mongolia, focusing especially on the work of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). It describes the evolution of the USAID program from one focused on immediate humanitarian relief to more sustainable long-term development. It also assesses some of the more notable USAID activities, including the Gobi Initiative, the GER Initiative, the establishment of Xac Bank and the revitalization of Xaan Bank. These early activities helped pave the way for a $285 million MCC program launched in 2008, one in which Mongolian partners played a key role.

After decades of flying beneath the radar, co-operation as a principle of business and socio-economic organisation is moving from the margins of economic, social and political thought into the ...
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After decades of flying beneath the radar, co-operation as a principle of business and socio-economic organisation is moving from the margins of economic, social and political thought into the mainstream. In both the developed and developing worlds, co-operative models are increasingly viewed as central to tackling a diverse array of issues, including global food security, climate change, sustainable economic development, public service provision, and gender inequality. This collection, drawing together research from an interdisciplinary group of scholars and co-operative practitioners, considers the different spheres in which co-operatives are becoming more prominent. Drawing examples from different national and international contexts, the book offers major insights into how co-operation will come to occupy a more central role in social and economic life in the twenty-first century.Less

Mainstreaming Co-Operation : An Alternative for the Twenty-First Century?

Published in print: 2016-10-26

After decades of flying beneath the radar, co-operation as a principle of business and socio-economic organisation is moving from the margins of economic, social and political thought into the mainstream. In both the developed and developing worlds, co-operative models are increasingly viewed as central to tackling a diverse array of issues, including global food security, climate change, sustainable economic development, public service provision, and gender inequality. This collection, drawing together research from an interdisciplinary group of scholars and co-operative practitioners, considers the different spheres in which co-operatives are becoming more prominent. Drawing examples from different national and international contexts, the book offers major insights into how co-operation will come to occupy a more central role in social and economic life in the twenty-first century.

This chapter explains the nature of American interest in international housing conditions after World War II, as well as the mechanisms by which Americans funnelled aid abroad. American aid flowed ...
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This chapter explains the nature of American interest in international housing conditions after World War II, as well as the mechanisms by which Americans funnelled aid abroad. American aid flowed primarily through the international division of federal housing agencies, or the various agencies tasked with bilateral aid outside the Department of Defense. Americans also contributed to a wide array of international, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental bodies, exerting varying degrees of influence within each. This chapter details the various modes of American leadership and participation and then offers a short summary of the overarching organization of the book.Less

Introduction

Nancy H. Kwak

Published in print: 2015-11-04

This chapter explains the nature of American interest in international housing conditions after World War II, as well as the mechanisms by which Americans funnelled aid abroad. American aid flowed primarily through the international division of federal housing agencies, or the various agencies tasked with bilateral aid outside the Department of Defense. Americans also contributed to a wide array of international, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental bodies, exerting varying degrees of influence within each. This chapter details the various modes of American leadership and participation and then offers a short summary of the overarching organization of the book.

This chapter covers the first two decades of the World Bank’s operations, when it was transformed from a financial institution to a fully fledged development agency. After sketching the Bank’s ...
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This chapter covers the first two decades of the World Bank’s operations, when it was transformed from a financial institution to a fully fledged development agency. After sketching the Bank’s founding and the key terms of its Articles of Agreement, the chapter describes a series of innovations in its early activities; the articulation by its President of a philosophy of “development diplomacy”; the establishment of the International Development Association, dedicated to the concerns of “underdeveloped” states; and the formulation of a legal hermeneutic that would allow continuous expansion of the Bank’s activities. The chapter ends by describing how the international political project of “Third-World” states presented a challenge to the Bank, eliciting among other things an important official interpretation of the political prohibition in the Bank’s Articles, and a broadening concern for the social dimensions of development.Less

From Reconstruction to Development

Guy Fiti Sinclair

Published in print: 2017-02-23

This chapter covers the first two decades of the World Bank’s operations, when it was transformed from a financial institution to a fully fledged development agency. After sketching the Bank’s founding and the key terms of its Articles of Agreement, the chapter describes a series of innovations in its early activities; the articulation by its President of a philosophy of “development diplomacy”; the establishment of the International Development Association, dedicated to the concerns of “underdeveloped” states; and the formulation of a legal hermeneutic that would allow continuous expansion of the Bank’s activities. The chapter ends by describing how the international political project of “Third-World” states presented a challenge to the Bank, eliciting among other things an important official interpretation of the political prohibition in the Bank’s Articles, and a broadening concern for the social dimensions of development.

This chapter discusses the impact of co-operatives and co-operative identity on poverty reduction, based around the author’s research on a dairy co-operative in a semi-arid province of Eastern Kenya. ...
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This chapter discusses the impact of co-operatives and co-operative identity on poverty reduction, based around the author’s research on a dairy co-operative in a semi-arid province of Eastern Kenya. The study found that the co-operative’s dual economic and social goals, which emphasise member and community priorities across a range of concerns, have helped it to engage in multiple areas of activity, ranging from the provision of goods and services to education and training, all of which led to a reduction of household poverty for members and nonmembers. The chapter suggests a nee for further research to explore the links between co-operative identity and poverty reduction in other regions and economic sectors.Less

The co-operative identity: good for poverty reduction?

Rowshan Hannan

Published in print: 2016-10-26

This chapter discusses the impact of co-operatives and co-operative identity on poverty reduction, based around the author’s research on a dairy co-operative in a semi-arid province of Eastern Kenya. The study found that the co-operative’s dual economic and social goals, which emphasise member and community priorities across a range of concerns, have helped it to engage in multiple areas of activity, ranging from the provision of goods and services to education and training, all of which led to a reduction of household poverty for members and nonmembers. The chapter suggests a nee for further research to explore the links between co-operative identity and poverty reduction in other regions and economic sectors.